To provide tennis and education in underserved communities with a focus on youth to instill character
6272 Abbott Station Drive, Suite 103
Zephyrhills, FL
33542
| Monday | 9am - 5pm |
| Tuesday | 9am - 5pm |
| Wednesday | 9am - 5pm |
| Thursday | 9am - 5pm |
| Friday | 9am - 5pm |
| Saturday | 10am - 4pm |
| Sunday | 9am - 5pm |
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The City of Zephyrhills, Florida is in the planning stages of a developing a USTA sanctioned tennis facility on 8.5 acres of property and featuring 10 tennis courts. The Zephyrhills City Council recently approved naming the center after Sarah Vande Berg, a local tennis standout and longtime resident of Zephyrhills, who died in a car accident in October 2015. The Sarah Vande Berg Tennis Center will offer a wide range of athletic endeavors with a focus on community tennis, opportunities for child development, recreational play and competitive matches. To understand the vision behind this center, it is important to know something about Sarah and her love of tennis and her competitive spirit.
Sarah’s Legacy
The first thing you noticed when you saw Sarah Vande Berg on the tennis court was the intense look in her eyes. She watched the ball coming off her racquet with quiet resolve as her two-handed back hand swept across her body and whipped forward. Then you noticed her height and the blond ponytail swirling behind her as she moved around the court, powerful ground strokes connecting with the ball, hurtling it over the net. Tennis was a way of life for the Vande Berg family, and Sarah in particular. Her father Todd is an avid tennis player and Sarah first picked up a racquet at six years old while attending vacation bible school a block from the tennis courts in Zephyrhills, Florida. With her father’s interest and her natural athletic talent, Sarah went from novice to high school player to district champion and statewide competitor. Those attributes earned her a tennis scholarship to the University of South Carolina Upstate Spartans. A veteran player by the time she reached high school, Sarah was the tennis team captain at Zephyrhills High School, was the All-Sunshine Athletic Conference pick through four years at ZHS, helped lead the Bulldogs to district championships in 2010 and 2012, and qualified for the Florida state tennis tournament three times in singles and twice in doubles. A communications major at USC Upstate, Sarah was a Disney enthusiast and popular and outgoing student. She supported other athletes in all sports at their matches and meets at USC Upstate, and cognizant of how homesick foreign students must have felt at the holidays, regularly brought home teammates from Germany, Sweden and other foreign lands, introducing them to American customs and Thanksgivings. Sadly, though, all that intensity, friendliness, warmth and passion was lost in a single car crash in Spartanburg, S.C. on October 11, 2015. Sarah, along with three other Upstate athletes were killed when their car left the roadway, striking a tree. She was 21 and just months from graduating with her degree in communications and returning to Florida. Talk to her parents, Todd and Charla, her sister Emily, or her legions of friends in Florida and South Carolina, and they will tell you of her love of tennis, of competition and of people. Todd speaks of her love of sports and of people. “She was a wonderful daughter,” he said, “she had an outgoing personality and she truly loved people.
Genesis of an Idea
